Wailing Suns
by Reatrea
Summary: On the way back from rescuing lost souls an Eldar vessels falls prey to the Dark Kin. A young seer and warlock fall into the poisoned grasp of an Archon with a forbidden preference for prisoners.
1. 1 Haunted Dreams

Haunted Dreams

As the ship swayed slightly from a rouge web wind, Aledel sightlessly watched her Tassel of Life sway under her as she leaned forward with elbows on knees. The tassel swung back and forth like a pendulum seeking direction. It was something all students of Farseer Lyandra wore, claiming it helped to remember that we all come from different paths when divining the future.

Mariner

Outcast

Mourner

Artist

Dreamer

Seer

Aledel was completely lost in an inner sea of thoughts an images. Her eyes did not see the pendulum between her knees or even felt the slight rock of the ship. Her mindscape was filled with images internal and possibly prophetic. Nothing pulled her from the endless hours caught in her meme-dream until a firm hand grabbed her shoulder.

Her hand leapt up and grabbed the stranger's, using them as an anchor to pull back into reality. Slowly the world started to focus. "It is not wise to wake a dreamer like that…" she muttered, pinching her eyes and feeling who was beside her. It felt oddly familiar.

"You are a seer, you should not get caught in old habits." A male voice said gently.

"Do I know you….?" She asked looking into the face of the one who still had her shoulder. His face was once very dashing but his face was now distinguished by time and his dark hair was streaked with grey. "Lt. Ythenal?" she asked in awe.

The man laughed. "I am hardly a Lt now, Little One, I have captained many ships since my time on Valainthir."

"I did not recognize you when we spoke earlier! Why did you not say something?" she asked, standing slowly.

"Retrieving the souls of the lost is important. I did not want to distract you by pulling your thoughts into the past." He said standing as well and walking over to her in awe. "It has been more than two millennia and yet….. forgive me…." Ythenal slowly reached up and touched her cheek with his small finger. "…. Your father speaks the truth…. time has barely touched you. Did you find the humans' fabled fountain of youth?"

Aledel smiled slightly and gently encouraged his hand back to his side. "I spent a long time away from Time. Let us leave it at that. Why are you still on a ship? Have you become lost on this path?"

Ythenal nodded, adjusting his uniform slightly. "I never had it in me to leave this life. It was exciting and dangerous, but still safer than an Outcast."

The young seer nodded, pursing her lips slightly.

"I did not mean that in a way against you. Your father and I search for years fo-"

"I know." Aledel said with a smirk before he could finish.

"And it is not like you chose-" he tried to continue.

"Actually." She said, holding up a finger, her face coloring in shame. "The last few decades was, indeed a choice."

Ythenal shifted slightly, unsure of what to say.

Aledel walked up to him and held up her hand for contact. "Ythenal. Thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart for what you did to help Father. You are brave and I admire you. You seem to have lived a great life. When we get back to Alaitoc, you, Father and I should dine together."

Ythenal touched her hand in thanks before bowing with a soft smile and ducking out of the room.

The young seer barely had a moment to herself before her mission mate, Illythirion, ducked into the room with a tray of food. The warlock smiled at her and set the tray down. "I am glad that you are no longer dream touched, what did the captain have to say?" The warlock's hair was braided in thousands of small braids then pulled up into the traditional top tail. The two of them had only known each other for a short time but had become close between training some together and then going on the mission.

"It turns out that I knew him from long ago." She said, sighing and sitting down. She chewed her nail in thought while eyeing the food.

Illythirion gestured at the food in an inviting way. "Is everything fine, my friend? You seem particularly...cautious, I suppose. When you are not dreaming, you have been pacing."

She reached over and took a piece of food, running it through her long fingers. "I'm alright, Illythirion." she frowned slightly. "I have not said anything to you about because I did not want to worry you, but I had a vision of trouble on our way home. Although it is not a very likly one, I asked the captain earlier to heighten the scanners." she took a slow breath, calming herself. "Unlikely as it may be, there is little we can but survive do if does happen."

Illythirion walked over to her and stopped just short of putting a hand on her shoulder. "Do not concern yourself with worrying me over visions. If you have seen something that indicates trouble, it should be shared." He said simply and without admonishment.

"I saw the dark kin raid us. If that happens, you need to take the stones and lock yourself in a safe area." She said, lightly touching his fingers.

As their fingers touched, he shivered at the thought of the dark kin. "I should say the same to you if that happens. We will remain extra vigilant just in case, but I am sure it is just stress induced visions from our trials. If trouble does happen, this vessel's best chance will be to flee as fast as possible."

"I agree, on both parts." She said sitting back in the chair as he sat next to her. They shared the food and each other's company for the rest of the night, smiling and trying to hide the color in their cheeks.

It wasn't until days had past and the thought of the visions of darkness had almost slipped out of their minds did the ship give a violent lurch and scream as something pierced it through.

As the ship bucked and the wraithbone screamed into her mind, Aledel was jerked from her sleep and on her feet in an instant. "No..." she whispered and grabbed her witchblade, diving into the hall. Slamming her hand against the wall, she sent a surge of energy through the circuit to alert the crew.

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Thank you for reading! Feedback more than welcome!  
Thank you to Cory, the co-author!


	2. 2 Fickle Fates

Fickle Fates

Aledel grabbed her witch blade, her mind brushing against Illythirion as he practically mirrored her movements. /"This wasn't supposed to happen!"/ her mind hissed to his as she slammed out into the hall.

/"It would seem that fate is against us…"/ he replied quietly, striding from his room in another hall to meet up to with her.

The ship rocked again, searing heat from fusion weapons burned into the hull, opening three large, scattered, holes. As the seer and warlock jogged to unite their efforts, the heart piercing sheiks and bone chilling war snarls of the dark kin flooded the halls.

Loudly seeking prey they came from three different directions making sure the two witch path walkers would not reach one another. Once they came into view Aledel mentally cursed loudly, pulling runes from her pouch with a whirl of her hand as the Kabalites opened fire on the crew. Their armor was black and purple with an unusual blue trim, with livery of a black spiked circle with two teardrops beneath it.

Aledel pulled up the shield rune as a squad of nearby crewman dove to avoid splinter fire. Between their dodge and the shield, they avoided the worst. "This is just a simple transport! There is nothing for you here, Dark Kin!" she hollered. "Leave before there is bloodshed!"

To her dismay, laughter was her only answer. The two groups split up, several remained to deal with the separated warlock and seer, while the rest dove off to meet the crew. Some of her attackers pressed the fire on her shield while others drew wicked blades and charged into melee. One with a taller helm yelled in the dark tongue above the feral cries of his warriors. "Capture the seers and kill the rest! Kaissal will have all your heads if the seers are lost!"

The seer took a moment to translate as she pushed more energy into her shield. What she understood made her face white and blood cold. The fates were indeed against them. Trying to swallow something akin to panic back down she passed the message onto Illythirion, who merely responded with a frightened affirmative nudge with a suggestion of immediate withdraw as soon as they had the opportunity to do so.

Now thankful for the seemly endless combat training this path had put her through, Aledel engaged with the three who thought her name was on their blades. Another rune flashed as she threw a wave of force at two, sending them flying back. In unison with her mind the witch blade raised to catch the knife of the third assailant. "What do you want with us!" she snarled as best she could in their tongue.

By the miracle of the witch blade, it slipped under the defenses of the one she had parried and quickly severed this life from the skeins of fate. Eying the numbers around her, she quickly became aware that the worst outcomes of the attack were quickly coming to reality. There were simply too many to hold off on their own…

The dark eldar dracon laughed underneath his tall helm. "You speak with the tone of an ur-ghul taught parrot speech. We want you because our lord archon wants you, warp-dabbler." He taunted, apparently happy to stand back and watch as he sent three more into melee with her. She could almost smell the poison on each of their sword as they swung at her with a brutal grace.

Ducking under the first sword, she activated another rune and threw a bolt of warp lightning at the other two, smirking in satisfaction as it chained. "Fine! I will go back to my own tongue! But be warned! The more you make me use my powers the riskier it gets!" she sheered.

The lighting dropped the first, but the other shrugged it off and swung at her. At the same time, the first one she had ducked swung as well. Only by seeing the world half a second before it happened for the skein did Aledel managed to twist away from both blades.

The dracon snarled at the failure of his men and openly decided to deal with the seer himself. Aledel twisted and back peddled, seeing the dracon charging like a viper. Knowing all her attention would have to be on him, she channeled a much stronger arch of warp at the other two. They pulled away, both from the agony of the warp as it coursed through them and knowing better than to get between their dracon and his prey.

The cruel looking blade of the dracon fell upon Aledel with no mercy. The angered, fluid blows were parried, but only just. Every clash making Aledel's hands go numb, she knew her time in this match was limited. In fact, she had seen it.

It was no surprise to her when her barely superior speed lost to far greater strength and skill. She could feel him grin as his blade sliced her across the waist. Within seconds the poison Final Breath had filled her veins and started to strangle her lungs. The dracon laughed and stepped back to watch his victory unfold. She could practically hear this decision to step back and not harm her further only to not risk his archon's wrath.

Aledel gasped, trying to pull air into her lungs and failing. Angry and refusing to die, she threw herself at the dracon, her witch blade feeling her desperation and lunging with her. Traveling as if it had a mind of its own the witch blade sought the blood of the dracon.

Although he was watching, she could feel his disbelief at her action and speed in slow motion. His guard had been down and he was unable to bring his sword to parry in time or move to completely dodge. The witch blade bit into his armor and drew across his torso like he was a plaything.

Hands seized her and drew her back, leaving the blade in the dracon as blood poured from the disemboweling wound. He dropped to his knees, hands fumbling to keep his life from pouring out of his abdomen and as quickly helped away.

Aledel smirked at the small victory, trying to fight the poison. But everything quickly became heavy and her world was consumed in black.

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Thank you for reading! Reviews are welcome! (Forgive editing mistakes please. Had a death in the family and I don't feel like going over this with a fine tooth comb today.)  
Fair warning, the next chapter might take a while to come out!


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